Medical Separation

NOTE: These procedures supplement relevant personnel policies and collective bargaining agreements, and should be read in conjunction with those provisions.

Decision-making authority: Department head or designee.

Resources: Disability Management Services (DMS), Employee Relations, HR Business Partner or HR Representative, Benefits staff, Campus ADA/504 Compliance Officer.

An employee may be medically separated if s/he is unable to perform the essential functions of his/her job due to medical reasons and efforts to provide a reasonable accommodation, consistent with relevant personnel policies, and collective bargaining agreements, and campus reasonable accommodation procedures are unsuccessful.

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I. Medical Separation

II. Reappointment Procedures after Medical Separation

Once medical separation has occurred, placement efforts similar to those undertaken prior to medical separation will occur, in accordance with applicable policy or collective bargaining agreement provisions. Reappointment procedures are as follows: The Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor will identify the person to the Employment Analyst.

The Employment Analyst and Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor will identify, with the person, those specific titles for which the person might be qualified, at the same salary range/grade maximum or lower as the held position. Qualifications include those established by the University and the department for the classification and the specific position. The Employment Analyst will review position vacancies in the identified job titles to determine whether the person should be referred to the hiring department for consideration. The Employment Analyst will refer the person to the hiring department for consideration when an appropriate position vacancy is identified. The department will evaluate the person's qualifications. If the department determines that the person can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation, the department will offer the position to the person without the need for recruitment.

If not selected for a given vacancy, the person may be considered for subsequent appropriate vacancies occurring during the time period established for reemployment, in accordance with policy or contract.

Request for Review (Campus Accommodation and/or Medical Separation) Form

Use this Checklist for Review of Medical Separation to ensure you have completed the process. There is no need to include the checklist when you forward the review to your Employee Relations Consultant.

Once the Request for Review has been signed by the Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor, it is sent back to the department with a recommendation. If the recommended action is medical separation, you should request the correct notice and separation letters from your Employee Relations Consultant.

III. Definitions and Exclusions

DEFINITION AND EXCLUSIONS
AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA)
AND/OR SECTION 503/504 OF THE 1973 REHABILITATION ACT

The following definitions and exclusions are derived from the ADA and the 1973 Rehabilitation Act.

A "qualified" individual with a disability is a person with a disability who satisfies the requisite skill, experience, education and other job-related
requirements of the employment position, and who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the position. Employees who do not meet the definition of "qualified" are not protected by the ADA or the Rehabilitation Act.

Employees who are currently engaging in the illegal use, possession, distribution of controlled substances are specifically excluded from the definition. Individuals whose current use of alcohol prevents them from performing their job duties or whose employment, by reason of such current alcohol abuse, would constitute a direct threat to property or the safety of others, would not qualify as an individual with a disability. NOTE: Employees who are currently participating in, or who have successfully completed, a supervised drug rehabilitation program or who have otherwise been successfully rehabilitated and no longer using drugs or alcohol are covered.

Specifically excluded from the definition of a disability are transvestitism, transsexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments, other sexual behavior disorders, compulsive gambling, kleptomania, pyromania, and psychoactive substance-use disorders resulting from current illegal use of drugs.

Also excluded are employees who have a currently contagious disease or infection and who, by reason of such disease or infection, would constitute a direct threat to the health or safety of others, or who, by reason of the currently contagious disease or infections, are unable to perform the duties of the job.
The ADA also prohibits discrimination on the basis of a relationship or association with an individual with a disability.

Medical Separation